The Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night and discussed the rental of 111 acres of farmland to the University of Minnesota Northwest Research and Outreach Center (NWROC). The current rental agreement concludes at the end of 2020, and Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner said NWROC contracted her about renewing the lease. “We have a contract with the NWROC,” said Weasner. “We have a three-year lease with the automatic three-year renewal as long as both parties agree that is coming up for renewal at the end of this year. (NWROC) has already reached out saying they would like to renew that lease, so I asked the council if they’re interested in continuing renting it out to them. There are a lot of special requirements out near the airport, so they are a good partner, and we want to make sure we work with them.”
The committee voted unanimously to move forward with the renewal. Councilman Tom Vedbratten asked if there was a lease in place for the University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Hockey at the Crookston Sports Center. Weasner said she has a meeting scheduled with UMC Chancellor Mary Holz-Clause on February 25 to begin negotiations. “I have set up an appointment with the Chancellor to discuss the lease contract for the facility in question, which would be the Sports Center,” said Weasner. “An office would be included possibly for the hockey coach and ice time, so we need to negotiate a contract with them. We did have one when the facility was built way back in 2009, which has expired.”
The committee then discussed the annual City Council Strategic Planning Session, and all members appeared in favor of moving the date of the meeting up this spring. Councilmembers were asked to review whether the date of March 21 would work for the meeting.
Mayor Dale Stainbrook discussed his vision for the strategic planning meeting. “The planning session we have early, and we’re trying to push it up a little bit this year,” said Stainbrook. “I know I’m going to ask Angel to bring out the blueprint from last year and what we’ve gotten done on it. Have council bring ideas, what they would like to see possibly get done for 2020. I think CHEDA has some ideas on the table too. Realistically if there are 10 ideas, let’s try to focus on three if possible or if there is a big one, let’s focus on one idea. But it’s a whole range of different things in the past from snow plowing to sidewalks. I’ve always said – we’re debt-free, let’s spend some money.”
Weasner also asked the committee for permission to be the voting member on the Polk County Single Family Housing Loan Pool, which former City Administrator Shannon Stassen had been, which she said that group needed for her to vote on Crookston’s behalf. “The City Administrator is a voting member of Polk County Single Family Housing Loan Pool,” said Weasner. “I was contacted by them that it is alright for me to be on that board as the city administrator was on it previously, and they have something that needs to be voted on. I needed something to put into the minutes to forward onto that group so that I can be a voting member.”
The committee also briefly discussed that each member should review the information presented by David Drown Associates, the firm hired for the city administrator search, and make notes for changes preceding the special City Council meeting scheduled with the firm’s representative at 5:00 p.m. this Thursday, February 13.
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